Critics rip into Ted Cruz after he says lawmakers’ concern over mass shootings are political theater
Jasmine Davis
2 min read
After a seven-day string of mass shootings that culminated with 10 people dying in a Colorado supermarket, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is tirelessly and tiresomely fanning the flames of outrage.
On Tuesday, the Texas Republican — who also happens to be among Washington’s top recipients of NRA dollars — racked up a litany of Twitter spankings for claiming that lawmakers who want stricter gun laws in the wake of mass shootings are just engaging in political theater.
“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens, because that’s their political objective.”
Further, Cruz tried to paint the other side’s condemnation of the GOP’s routine offer of “thoughts and prayers” platitudes every time there’s a mass shooting as a mockery of faith. Because we all know what a turn-the-other cheek Christian he is.
“I don’t apologize for thoughts or prayers,” he proclaimed. “I will lift up in prayer people who are hurting, and I believe in the power of prayer, and the contempt of Democrats for prayers is an odd sociological thing.”
Critics wasted no time ripping into Cruz, suggesting that by saying “every time there’s a shooting,” he’s kind of acknowledging that this country may just have a problem. Meanwhile, others pointed just how fat Cruz’s campaign coffers are with NRA money and that the guy has a pretty selective sense of outrage.
Stay tuned, folks. Turns out Flyin’ Ted’s also planning a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to get to the bottom of this whole immigration crisis you may have heard about.
It’s a safe bet more inflammatory Cruz statements and pissed-off tweets are bound to follow. Because these days, feeding the outrage furnace sure seems to come easier for Texas’ junior senator than doing his fucking job and actually governing.
